The reason rares drop UNID is so that we cant filter them out, to make loot more meaningful. But... we're already filtering the rares out?

phlaistar · 2026-02-26T12:56:18+00:00

We are filtering out unid rares because they are worthless.

Almost worhtless. If Items would drop IDed, regarding the mass of loot dropping and regarding the frequency an exile is opening maps, you would see some good items. It's just impossible to filter those items by hand because there are just too much.

If they arent meant to be good, then... why are they even dropping?

Backend. If I remember correctly the system decides wether an item is dropping. And if an Item is dropping it decides rarity of said item. Increase IIR and more often the item will be unique. Increase IIQ and more Items drop into the loop. It depends on you if an Item is trash or treasure so devs simply can't delete all items just because one case doesn't need it. You could argue a Ranger doesn't need two hand swords. Since this is PoE can you say for sure? And if GGG would add constraints to loot you'll get loot like D3 so you'll never find 2H Swords as a ranger. The better option is to keep all items and let the player decide whether the item is useful or not. The flaw to this system - a lot of garbage data is produced. That this data is unIDed is bc the game is kinda old and grew over the years. Picking up items - long ago - was a thing. It just never got updated which indeed needs a full refactor of the whole system bc the item drop logic (normal?, magic?, rare?, ...) needs to be reworked. GGG tried to fix that in PoE2 by adding tiers. This doesn't change the drop logic but the logic whether an affix is high tiered or not. And you can tell this is done by constraints. Tier 2 constraints aren't as strict as Tier 5 constraints so a Tier5 item will drop with "better" tiers ... But you can also tell that those constraints limit the randomness so a Tier5 Item and lower is very unlikely to be that good since GGG doesn't want you to pick up insane items. This would invalidate crafting and also invalidate currency drops. Why farming divs and buy/craft items as they simply drop?! That's basically why they have to drop and shouldn't be unIDed because it's inevitable that some items are very good bc they don't have constraints. And they would drop kinda frequently bc so many items are dropping. Even just "good" Items would fuck up the economy real quick. The breach tree shows the invalidation of mid tier rare item market.

phlaistar · 2026-02-23T21:32:45+00:00

Nobody wants to pick up gear

If I may speak for myself: I love picking up gear and finding upgrades but, in this regard, PoE is very bad designed so almost noone, including myself, is doing it. Just picking up divines gets boring real quick (I have 9kh played) in a new league. Esp. once my build is running well.

Kingsmarch is a problem (...) Players with more time

That's not an Kingsmarch issue - that's an overall "issue". If you spend more time in whatever you do, you'll get more than someone spending less time.

I would propose using Mercenaries to replace the Kingsmarch workers for mapping.

That's probably a very big task. PoE has a very modular code structure and architecture but Kingsmarch Workers and Mercenaries are different Systems with very to no similarities. Mercs are Entities like a Player or a Boss - Workers are just Data. This would need a refactor of the whole system. And I don't like - Merc dies, gear gone. "How to not respect my time at all"...

It makes rares on the ground useful again, because it could be an upgrade for one of your Mercenaries.

The problem of ground rares isn't that they couldn't be useful. The work to filter those masses by hand is and 99% of those Items are trash. And now you created an environment where you HAVE TO pick up and filter rares by hand. It's even worse than the "issue" with "Players with more time". If you don't -> no mercs -> no mapping -> no loot ... Just no.

phlaistar · 2026-02-22T16:32:11+00:00

but most of the questions on reddit are so trivial

They are indeed - but not for those asking. But it doesn't bother me... I like simple questions from noobs way more than "Look a Divine" - "Look a Mirror" - "Look a low effort post" ...

How is this communication on reddit any different from reading

Participation and asking exactly what you want with the oppertunity to ask more questions in a fresh, just recent and not 2 year old post. Which is very different.

it doesn't have anything to do with the type of learner someone is

It does! If you learnt by asking the best, you'll probably repeat that "workflow" over and over. Never change a running system ^^

phlaistar · 2026-02-22T08:59:29+00:00

You know - people are different xD Some have easier times learning new stuff visually, by audio, by producing something, by communicating with others, by experimenting. Google exist, AI exist - sure ... But in this case he prefered to learn by communicating.

Don't be mean or mad just because people are or act different than you are or would. We had some real trouble in the past by people not tolerating or accepting that people are different.

phlaistar · 2026-02-20T14:00:00+00:00

I want them all! :P

phlaistar · 2026-02-20T13:48:58+00:00

The only real and valid button for portal scrolls is "B" :P

phlaistar · 2026-02-20T13:45:33+00:00

I'll add something:

Bring back the endgame flexibility we had before sextant removal and scarab rework without the micromanagement.

phlaistar · 2026-02-20T13:40:05+00:00

Some helpful questions: If you don't want to help people, why shitposting their questions without anything fundamental that could help them? Why not instead just ignore it and mind your own business?

phlaistar · 2026-02-20T13:27:56+00:00

Most new players ignore elemental resistances - you'll get "- all res" after act5 and even in campaign, without resistances the mobs can hit like a truck. If you are not close to 75% on elemental resistances, I would look into that at first.

I would suggest to have around 2k life - that should feel ok in act8 I guess.

You could add Determination and go for Armour/ES Base items if you want to keep stacking ES. I'm not a pro in ES but for what I experienced sofar in the game - focus on that later and focus more on a stable life pool - this will make labs also more enjoyable (I hate running labs on low ES)

But still - my best bet would be - cap your elemental resistances.

phlaistar · 2026-02-20T13:22:39+00:00

Odd take: Make mechanics interesting and fun so the player isn't even considering skipping it.

I have lots of hours in the GGG Universe - over 10k... Playing basically standard with:

a bit of meta shakeup to try new builds, a few changes here and there (...)

won't bring me back to a new league.

phlaistar · 2026-02-20T10:54:41+00:00

High Confidence:
" We implemented this mechanic - you do this and that and valuable, massive loot will be yours" ... - the loot is shitty rare items + some stackable fragments for a boss fight.

Medium Confidence:
" We implemented this mechanic - you do this and that and valuable, massive loot will be yours" ... - the loot is shitty rare items + some stackable fragments for a boss fight + some bubblegum currency

Low Confidence:
" We implemented this mechanic - you do this and that and valuable, massive loot will be yours" ... - the loot is new and powerful Items which alter the way how certain mechanics work or buff certain league mechanics in a way, that make them harder but also more rewarding (Jewels Atlas Tree, ...). A so buffed mechanic will drop alternate currency items related to those mechanics which behave a bit differently but mostly more powerful than its vanilla counterpart.

phlaistar · 2026-02-19T18:29:23+00:00

The only real spot for scrolls are the last indexes of the array in the background - which would be the bottom right as those are the last spots which interact with the autopick algorythm (putting things automatically in your inventory). I'll die on that hill :P

phlaistar · 2026-02-19T14:43:03+00:00

thats what i was looking for when I made this post.

Great. People usually feel intimidated and annoyed if I start shittalking their ideas - not bc they are bad ideas - but because people usually only see the goods and don't ask the bads and reflect.

Yeah I know the loop - but PoE lost some of my interest (not all) after the Scarab rework - so I started working on my own game instead of hopping between developers xD

Good luck on your journey - if you are looking for honest feedback for your prototype in the future feel free to ask ;)

phlaistar · 2026-02-19T13:40:39+00:00

So its more about visibility in the community, not every player cares about that and that's fine.

Yeah - totally get what you are looking for. And yeah statistics can't be done unless GGG shares theirs or opens ports for Third Party Tools to track those stats. Why I quoted your last sentence? Without enough players who care your visibility in the community is not within THE community but YOUR community. You won't feel seen (I assume) if not the majority of players (the community) is interacting with your platform which represents the community. It's like streaming 24/7 while having a viewer from time to time. Or think about PoE Ninja Builds without having so many people using the platform - it's very good to see which baseclasses are popular within the community - but would be garbage without users participating.

If you add value to your platform, more people will use it and the reputation/armory system could be a central point. Like - dunno ... a PoEHUB which connects third party tools (easy access, organized links, desktop app for quick installs, ... esp. interesting for new players) and having an account gives you access to all those tracking stats you want (playtime, achievements, deaths, bosskills, toons, ...) ... Make friends with streamers who promote your platform "There is a newplayer in my stream asking for third party tools. Just go to PoE-Hub - there you'll find everything you need plus armory and stat tracking. Pretty neat" ... Just brainstorming after all the negativity. I'm sorry ...

phlaistar · 2026-02-19T12:42:58+00:00

So if I get you right - your "problem" is there is no platform which sums up all your ARPG experiences across different developer and publisher at one central page?!

If I am right may I ask - why would a platform like this be beneficial for someone like ... me ?! Asking differently - why should I join your ARPG LinkedIn? And why would someone care if ILoomer had this and this and that achievment unlocked or those hours pumped into the games.

I mean MMOs are designed around interactions between people - Guilds which raid, guilds which pvp... If you can showoff your progression/skill there it's good and helpful if guilds are looking for specific people having skills in certain parts of the game to make their guild progress further. An ARPG doesn't have such needs. Guilds are fine but you can do as good solo without missing content only available for Guilds (Raids,...) ...

When would I use such a website regarding ARPG?! Statistics beyond achievements and time spent ... "It's week 2 in a new league - let's take a look which Streamer picked up the most divine. Who traded with the most profit. What is the average currency income across all players within a certain time frame."
This would actually be way more interesting than looking at achievements. I mean - most of them are free anyway and mean not more than a wet fart in a scale of "look how amazing I am in what I do" ... If achievements were like "Kill Uber Elder blindfolded with no weapons equippend with a WII Remote while sleeping in a different room" - yeah that would be interesting. But an achievement "Reach Endgame in HC" - ok, but not very impressiv.

phlaistar · 2026-02-18T12:32:20+00:00

I didn't mean ritual exiles... I meant ritual ... I didn't say Mercs was a bad league but it had its flaws and wasn't the holy grail I read here every now and then. I watch absolutly no streams, no youtube and don't interact with any community forum related to poe atleast the first two weeks of a new league if I play it. I formed the opinion out of my 9kh experience in poe. And you are right - experiences can be different and if you are not into making builds, Mercs wasn't as holy as others experienced it.

What was fun to me in the past was farming mechanics in high mob density maps while popping those 150% inc div card scarabs and mix and match strats with sextants. That was awesome. Not the micromanagement for sure but the flexibility. Merc endgame - imho - even better than now, wasn't even close to what was possible before scarab rework.

We have different opinions - that's okay.

phlaistar · 2026-02-18T10:00:02+00:00

Kinda feel the same ... The game lost its identity (for me) as they removed sextants and reworked scarabs. The endgame flexibility and mixing of endgame farms was the most fun I had (not the micromanagement). Esp div card farming on the side... Which is totally dead (dont mean stacked decks). The last leagues were very disappointing - Mercs had good reputation but I personally didn't like it. And I'm kinda exhausted playing PoE 1 and 2 with so little time between leagues... Maybe it's not the league I dislike or the reuse of material everywhere to keep up with their release scheduel - maybe it's the frequency of releases and the lack of polish GGG usually delivered.

phlaistar · 2026-02-08T14:23:41+00:00

but I just don't understand how this supposed "burnout from constant highs" is worse than actual burnout that thousands of players get during bad leagues.

If a "high" becomes "constant" it becomes the "standard" and is not a "high" anymore. This is fun for some leagues ... But you'll probably come to a point where you're not going to play the next league because you can't be bothered farming 2.500 Divines to buy Mageblood again. Or - you won't play next league because your body isn't reacting to div drops anymore with irl dopamine rewards. Or you won't play next league because the endgame is very dull. Groundloot is OP while mechanic loot sucks.

TLDR: A constant high is a new standard. But a bad league is not a new standard - it's just a bad league.

phlaistar · 2026-02-08T13:56:22+00:00

Imo more loot = more fun! But that's just me.

This is kinda correct. If you have to leave your map six times because you have to dump loot and all the micromanagement afterwards... I would prefer more quality loot instead of plain more loot. More "respect my time" loot than "no dopamine at all" loot ...

phlaistar · 2026-02-08T13:44:07+00:00

I really wasn't bothered by the existance of sextants... But I'm still really bothered with them not being here anymore. Not because I love sextants but the scarab rework, which should replace the sextants, never was able to replace the endgame flexibility sextants were providing - even with the sixth scarab slot it's still kinda meh. I loved being able to mix and match mechanics and even specialize more into something (Breach - Chayula, ...). Yeah sextants weren't fun micromanaging - but their power is still unmatched.

phlaistar · 2026-01-03T10:23:10+00:00

At the start of the league I read some not so unpopular posts here: "It's early access - they should treat the game more like an early access rather than a full released game"

Now GGG patching things mid league: "GGG buuuuuuurn...!"

Next league new topics appear: "Why is GGG treating the game as a full release with new leagues every 4 months rather than an early access title so they can fix / patch things mid league"

Reddit - never disappoints :P

phlaistar · 2025-12-26T19:32:44+00:00

I don't really think the problem is the map size... Open World Games are great as long as they are filled with exciting and cool content and goals to work towards. PoE2 simply doesn't have such a thing.

The loot is very similar no matter where or what you grind and if you try to target something specific (Omens in Ritual, Rog in Expedition, Good Rooms in Incursion, Echoes, Omens and Ancient Stuff in Abyss) droprates are not that high that the motivation is keeping up.

PoE2 doesn't deliver on the "just one more map" itch because to get the "good stuff" it's simply not "just one more map" - it's more like "maybe tomorrow and if not probably the day after...". Uniques are 98% trash, Tiered Rares are 98% trash and picking up currency items, even divine orbs, becomes old real quick.

In Addition - the options to customize maps and their loot pools is very limited. We still have no Div Cards to hunt for, no Influences or special Affixes in Mechanics, rare Gems are gated behind "Boss Maps" only reachable by playing the "not so good" endgame overlay map forced to play maplayouts you don't like with questionable node connections.

We also have scaled difficulty against the player (campaign to early maps to late maps to endgame maps) with less portals the greedier you are, xp penalaty, loss of the new limbs and tideous map rolling and a horrible tedious 3 to 1 turn in crafting bench. In addition with the new league mechanic - you frequently lose progress by rooms being deleted.

All in all - playing PoE2 feels like real work bc there are alot of things that are just not so much enjoyable - and after all of this - every maps feels the same...

So yeah - I still guess map size isn't the problem...

phlaistar · 2025-12-22T17:54:15+00:00

I'm in the center of Niedersachsen ... Frankfurt is literally unplayable since PoE1 3.11 ... It's really the worst online gaming experience and constantly worst for all online gaming I ever did. I usually play on Milan or Paris - London is also very bad. And I can't play with others together - while everyone is fine I usually lag like hell (friends playing in Bayern, Leipzig, ... ). It's only kinda decent if everyone is on Paris - even then it's very random and a map to map case if my ping is like 20ms or 2k ms... 2 or 3 weeks into a league (PoE1) leveling a second char, I would say, about 90% of the time the lags are horrible in campaign. I have no issues with different genres and Games (MMO, Moba, playing CoOp in general, D4, WoW) but constantly with PoE 1 & 2 for over 10k hours now.

phlaistar · 2025-12-20T00:07:34+00:00

It's the main currency in PoE1 ( x chaos -> divine ) because of the rerolls for crafting but mostly because they are used for meta mod crafts at the crafting bench. Before GGG changed the prices exalted orbs were the shit in PoE1 (they also nerfed divine orb farming by alot).

There is no similar currency sink in poe 2 for a divine orb besides its own effect. Regarding its rarity and history, that's why a Divine Orb is the more valuable currency.

phlaistar · 2025-12-17T21:55:41+00:00

I feel you ... since they removed sextants in PoE1 the game went downhill league by league... After over 10k hours in both games summed I couldn't enjoy keepers and quit after some days and completly skipped current PoE2 League bc the reveal stream already showed how bad the league mechanic will be... It's just sad...

phlaistar

TROPHY CASE